LET'S TALK ABOUT SLAVES...HUMAN TRAFFICKING: EXPOSING HIDDEN VICTIMS AND CRIMINAL PROFIT AND HOW LAWYERS CAN HELP END A GLOBAL EPIDEMIC

Abstract

Human trafficking is a highly lucrative industry that extends to all corners of the globe. Developed countries have become the destination for those plucked from source countries and people are trafficked within their own states. These are generally the impoverished, the un-empowered, the uneducated and the dispossessed. The urgency with which this issue needs to be tackled nationally and transnationally has recently been fuelled by reports that profits are being used to fund terrorist activity. This makes cooperation between nations and their lawyers imperative; criminal and corporate lawyers can help to end a global slavery epidemic by international cooperation, identifying victims and diverting them out of justice systems, exposing transnational organised crime and by ensuring corporate responsibility.